1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of children's play structures and, in particular, to interactive water play structures for safely entertaining and educating young and intermediate age children and adults.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the past decade, the popularity of the family-oriented water theme park has greatly increased. This increase is due in part to the desire of families to participate in activities which allow relief from the summer heat while providing thrills and entertainment for the entire family.
Until very recently, most water parks were centralized around a few major ride attractions. The most prevalent of the ride attractions is the water slide. A water slide generally allows participants to slide down a twisting or steeply sloping water trough before encountering a splash landing in a wading pool at the end. Other popular ride attractions include surfing wave simulators, log flumes, and white-water rafting.
As can be imagined, these rides are primarily designed to entertain adults and older children. The rides tend to be fast-paced and may sometimes involve a degree of risk of physical harm, particularly to small children. In addition, participants often complain that they spend much more time waiting in line for the rides than they actually spend on the ride itself.
As a result of these drawbacks, many families with small children are relegated to a more static play environment, such as wading pools and smaller structures designed specifically for the younger children. While these areas of the park may be sufficiently entertaining for smaller children, they are seldom exciting enough for adults and older children. Therefore, the younger families who are going to the water theme parks to spend time together, actually end up spending a great deal of time apart from one another in order to allow each of the family members to achieve a satisfactory level of entertainment. There exists a need in the water theme park field for a play structure which can entertain and challenge children and adults of all ages.